Prohibition ended in Finland, 1932
At 10 am on the 5th April 1932, the shops of Oy Alkoholiliike Ab opened for the first time for the sale of alcohol, ending nearly thirteen years of prohibition.…
First recorded sale of friction matches, 1827
On 7th April 1827, John Walker, of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England, sells the first friction matches in his chemist shop to a local solicitor called Hixon. Walker served his…
French Protestants granted freedom of worship, 1802
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in October 1685, made Protestant worship in France illegal. This remained the case until they received limited toleration during the…
Louisiana claimed for France, 1682
On 9th April, 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, claimed the Mississippi basin in the name of the France by erecting a cross and a column, and by burying…
Emiliano Zapata assassinated, 1919
Born in August 1879, Emiliano Zapata Salazar became a mediero (sharecropper) and horse trainer in his home village of Anenecuilco in the small central Mexican state of Morelos. He campaigned…
Launch of Apollo 13, 1970
On 11th April 1970, a Saturn V rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying the crew of the Apollo 13, James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and…
Emperor Haile Selassie visited Jamaica, 1966
Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, had been the central figure in the Rastafarian faith since the foundation of the movement in the early 1930s. The indigent population in Jamaica…
U.S. Congress authorised two-cent coin, 1864
On 22nd April 1864 the U.S. Congress passed an Act to authorise the issuance of a two-cent coin. This Act also gave the the U.S. Treasury discretionary powers to decide…
First Volvo car produced, 1927
Eighty years ago today the Swedish vehicle manufacturer Volvo produced their first car. On 14th April, 1927, the first ÖV4 – nicknamed the ‘Jakob’ left the company’s Hisingen factory in…
Samuel Johnson`s Dictionary published, 1755
“Dictionary, s. a book explaining the words of any language alphabetically; a lexicon” The above definition is taken from Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language, first published on…